Prominent Chicago businessman dies in Calif.

RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. (AP) – Barry Lind, a leading voice in the futures industry for many years and a fixture at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, has died after being hit by a car in Southern California, according to coroner’s officials. He was 74.

Lind was crossing a road in Rancho Mirage when he was struck Wednesday evening, the Riverside County sheriff-coroner’s office said. He died of his injuries early Thursday.

Alcohol wasn’t believed to be a factor in the crash.

Lind served five terms on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange’s board of directors. He played a key role in creating the International Monetary Market and was a director of the National Futures Association for 12 years.

Lind was a co-founder of Lind-Waldock & Co., among the first firms to market futures to retail investors, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. That firm was sold in 2000, having expanded from a firm with two full-time employees to more than 1,000 international workers.

Most recently, he was a managing partner of investment firm, Silver Young Capital LLC, which he ran with cousin Alan Young.

“He was a mentor, really like a soul mate and brother,” Young told the Sun-Times.

Lind was also the founder and chairman of the Rose Lind Charitable Trust, a philanthropy involved in medical research and access to health care for the underprivileged.

The Northwestern University graduate was inducted into the Futures Hall of Fame in 2006.

(Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)